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Spurious liquor seized

4,800 bottles of liquor, with labels and stickers resembling original IMFL, were seized

TAMBARAM: Personnel from the Prohibition Enforcement Wing (REW) of the Chennai Suburban Police on Friday arrested four men on charge of smuggling spurious Indian Made Foreign Liquor.

A total of 4,800 bottles of liquor, with labels and stickers resembling original IMFL, were seized from a house in Nanganallur and a car in Ayapakkam near Ambattur.

The arrested persons were identified as S. Sathish (35), C. Selvaraj (40), B. Prakash (25) and D. Dinesh Kumar (25). Briefing mediapersons, Chennai Suburban Police Commissioner S.R. Jangid said that the PEW personnel made the seizure based on a tip-off about the movement of a car with liquor bottles in Ayapakkam. The police seized 15 boxes of 180-ml liquor bottles.

Interrogation of the persons led the police to the house in Nanganallur, from where 85 boxes of liquor were recovered. Mr. Jangid said that the men would call their contacts in Puducherry and ask them to deliver the consignment. On receipt of cash, the Puducherry group would deliver the liquor bottles. Those arrested in the suburbs would buy the bottles at Rs.32 each and sell them at Rs.37 to their clients, who, in turn, would sell the bottles between Rs. 60 and Rs.80 to customers.

The bottles would usually be sold through illegal bars attached to government liquor outlets and places where there very few government IMFL outlets.

Mr. Jangid said that further investigations were on to ascertain from whom the gang had purchased the bottles in Puducherry. The car and a motorcycle were also seized. The value of the seized goods is reported to be around Rs.5 lakh.